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Fireworkz goez to Windowz

Published: 5th Aug 2006, 18:41:10 | Permalink | Printable

Speadsheet app will face Excel in showdown

Fireworks screenshotThe developers of word processor and speadsheet package Fireworkz are said to be working hard on a Microsoft Windows port of the software.

The latest RISC OS version of Fireworkz, pictured, is dated November 2002, yet the recent Windows port is dated June 2006. However, it's understood developments for the Windows version will make their way back into a future RISC OS release.

Gerald Fitton of programmers Abacus Training said: "Yes, we are looking at improvements for the RISC OS version, but at the moment we are concentrating our efforts on putting those improvements into a recently released 32 bit Fireworkz for Windows.

"Both Fireworkz32 for RISC OS and Fireworkz 32 for Windows use the same source code so, once we have the feedback from the Windows version, we will upgrade the RISC OS version."

A free demonstration version of Fireworkz for our platform is available for download.

Links

Fireworkz website

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Discussion

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Better import/export to make it easier to use with OpenOffice or Excel files would be top of my list for features.

is a RISC OS Usermarkee174 on 5/8/06 7:03PM
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Hasn't Fireworkz for Windows been available for ages?

is a RISC OS Userbobloblaw on 5/8/06 9:35PM
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bobloblaw:

The Fireworkz release note has references to Windows going back to March 2005, so I think you're right!

However, the fact that development is continuing is certainly news to me, and good news at that. It would be great to see the improvements factored back into the RISC OS version. I still find it stands up well enough to the likes of Excel for general use (there have been times when I've needed to use Fireworkz just because of the bizarre row/column restrictions Excel enforces), but there's certainly room for improvements here and there.

is a RISC OS Userflypig on 7/8/06 8:25PM
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Flypig:

I'm not sure Excel's row/column restrictions are bizarre - I've only ever found one app that does what Fireworkz does, and that's Fireworkz! (I assume you're referring to the fact that the cells in any given column can vary in width - which is a fantastically useful feature!)

is a RISC OS UserVinceH on 7/8/06 10:31PM
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Ah, sorry, I should have been more clear. I was referring to the restriction in Excel that worksheets cannot have more than 256 columns or 65536 rows (something that is apparently fixed in Excel 2007).

However I totally agree with you on the way cells can have varying widths in Fireworkz. It certainly seems unusual (and sometimes confusing!) but very useful.

is a RISC OS Userflypig on 7/8/06 11:52PM
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